Recent events have me pondering the question of what role technology plays in either advancing or harming our society and the rights of citizens. Everyone knows Wikileaks released its entire cache of secret government cables last week and an Apple employee lost an iPhone 5 prototype, in yet another bar… Note to Apple-if you want to continue keeping secrets better than the government, STOP letting employees take your biggest secret to establishments known for inducing forgetfulness!

On the surface, these two events seem worlds apart, but, the common denominators are technology and the government. Wikileaks is using the Internet in an attempt to expose the government for a lack of transparency and the Apple snafu illuminates how the government can be used by powerful, private citizens to control public access to a technology, especially when it impacts the $$ a company will make. These are two sides of the same coin and both illuminate the power of technology to shape and change the world. But, how far is too far?

The source and sudden urgency of Wikileaks going public with all of its top-secret data, including high-level informants, is confusing at best. They blame a UK newspaper for providing a password in a published book and the newspaper says Wikileaks gave this password to all of its media cohorts and human-rights partners. Needless to say, it seems Wikileaks received a taste of its own medicine by sharing information it wanted to keep confidential and reacted recklessly by publishing everything it had. The damage this will cause will unfold over time. Government transparency is one thing. Handing military records and the names of people carrying out the mission to anyone who has access to a computer, including those who intend harm, compromises a government’s ability to protect its citizens.

In the case of Apple, four uniformed police officers with two Apple investigators showed up at a private home in San Francisco, where the two Apple employees searched the house for the lost prototype to no avail. This is basic, do you want your police department spending precious resources showing up at the person’s home you “think” may have it, should you or I lose our cell phone because of our own actions?

So, what does any of this have to do with the AV industry? Look no further than the Analog Sunset coming down the road! Hollywood influenced the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) to eliminate VGA and analog video in an attempt to curb movie piracy. There’s no way for Hollywood to encrypt analog video transmission and implement HDCP and EDID. Hollywood single-handedly removed analog video from laptops as of December 2013, the main source of presentation delivery in the professional AV industry. But, that’s like a stray bullet hitting an innocent victim since nobody actually pirates DVD’s using analog video. This creates a nightmare for manufacturers who have to engineer new product lines to deliver content barely used outside of testing a system install!

I couldn’t even guess an answer for how far is too far. Technology has some many positive benefits and provides opportunities which have never existed. On the other hand, we’re moving so fast it’s hard to foresee the unintended consequences technology is creating in our lives and our children’s future.